Claiming on building insurance for bathroom

Family_life

Hi all,

We'd really appreciate some help. We recently brought a shared ownership home (resale built in the 80's). Noted on our survey was a stain on the kitchen ceiling, to which the owner said he'd had a leak in the bathroom above which had been fixed but the ceiling hadn't been re-painted.

Two days after moving in we found out that the leaking pipe hadn't been fixed, he'd wrapped duct tape around the pipe!!! We had a plumber come out, who said that the owner had obviously put the bathroom in himself as pipes were fitted with incorrect fittings etc. He also said that the floor was unsafe as the weight of the bath had created a dip in the floor where the feet are,so all of the water was running to the weakest point, and that it would have been leaking for quite a while. We knew that we needed a new bathroom when we moved in but thought that we could save up for it. The plumber, as a temporary fix has lifted the bath feet and put timber underneath them so that the joists support the weight rather than the chipboard floor.

Yesterday the toilet started leaking to the point where plaster is coming off the kitchen ceiling.

We have already brought the new bathroom Suite, but cannot afford to have the old one ripped out, all the pipe work to be re done new flooring etc. What would your advice be with regards to claiming off our building insurance (which is covered by our housing association)
How do we go about it? Any tips?

Many thanks

Quentin

Building insurance won't cover the poor workmanship, though may cover damage done by the new leak.

See what your surveyor had to say about the bathroom - the surveyor may be liable if the survey gave it a specific clean bill of health.

Family_life

We called our solicitor when we first had the plumber out, she said that as the leak was under the bath the surveyor wouldn't have taken off the bath panel or lifted up carpets, (we had the middle survey as the house isn't that old). She did say that we could take action against the person who owned the house before us as it was illegal for him to misinform the surveyor. She advised us that all he would be obliged to pay for would be the chipboard floor(quoted £500) and by the time we had paid legal costs, time and stress etc it wouldn't be worth it.